Changing Places by David Lodge

One fine day, when I was done with all the books borrowed from the library and didn't have anything tempting to read from my own collection, my friend lent me the book A David Lodge Trilogy. I had never heard of the author before, but was sure it will not disappoint me since I and my lending friend share similar tastes for books. The trilogy contains three books: Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work.

David Lodge is a British author and has more than 20 books to his credit. His latest book, Deaf Sentence, was released in 2008. His work, Small World and Nice Work were shortlisted for Booker prize and were made into television series later on. How Far Can You Go? won the Whitbread Book of the Year for 1980.

Changing Places is about Philip Swallow, an academic working at Rummidge University and Morris Zapp, Professor and an expert on Jane Austen at Euphoria University. As part of their exchange program, these two gentlemen swap places and assume the job of the other. Swallow is excited with this as he gets an escape from his drudgery, his wife and his kids. He remembers the time when he visited America last and he looks forward to having a wonderful time alone at the States. Zapp, on the other hand, is already tired with his journey and has agreed to this only because his wife has agreed to postpone their divorce if he moves out of their house for six months.

As the both of them settle down with their new jobs and surroundings, they also experience some amount of cultural shock. While Rummidge is a small, rural town where all the people live like one big, family, Zapp misses his night clubs and adventures. Swallow is overwhelmed with the freedom in Euphoria. Both the gentlemen end up having an affair with the other's wife. Some incidents and events in both the places make them want to stay on in their new place rather than go back to their previous lives.

The initial pages of the book took me by surprise. The fine characterization, witty lines, sarcastic humor reminded me of Tom Robbins, another favorite (humor) author of mine. This is the best part of the book. The humor quotient of the book dips as the story progresses. Each chapter of the book is structured in a different way. While the first chapter is laid out like the usual prose, we see another chapter written out in the form of a play and yet another like a script. The author was bringing in some humor no doubt, but it didn't work for me. I felt the author was trying too hard. He should have stuck to the prose structure and tried to add more wit to his story. The book also ends in an ambiguous way where the story just stops abruptly and the reader is left to wonder what happened. I personally don't like stories which end up being happy ones just to please the readers. Any deviation from this is welcome.

Another thing which I really liked about this book is the portrayal of cultural difference. Lodge, being British himself, has had the nerve to laugh at British and Americans alike. In the second chapter especially, where we see Swallow and Zapp settling down in their new places, the contrast that the author draws between the two characters and settings is amazing. Be it the lifestyle (Mrs. Swallow complains that Zapp visited her late at night where as it's just evening), culture (Mrs. Swallow is too polite to ask Zapp to leave), night life (Melanie and her parties), academic life (Swallow has not published any papers, yet he is a lecturer) - all these are so well brought out that I sometimes laughed at myself. I could see the similarities between our culture and the British and I just had to laugh and shake my head in amazement.

At the end of the day, the question is do I recommend this book? I say yes. It's an entertaining book, not a thought-provoking one and serves its purpose of making people laugh. So, go ahead and read it.

The Eyre Affair: Jasper Fforde

Review is here.

The Mystic Masseur: V S Naipual

A bad choice for a book to read after Oscar Wilde and Tom Robbins. The former has a rich language and the latter, a great sense of humour. I have heard from people that Naipual's books are humorous. May be my sense of humour is pathetic, I didn't see any humour in this book.

The book is the story of Ganesh, his failure as a primary teacher, his transformation into a mystic, a writer and finally an MBE. The story is set in Trinidad and concentrates on the small Indian community settled there. I am confused about the location and the people. They speak a weird dialect of English and it is weird to an extent that the dialgoues began to irritate me. Every sentence spoken in adorned with man or girl (and sometimes both) and no where grammatically correct. If the dialogues are getting on your nerves, the narration doesn't help much. It is bland and sometimes makes you skip it. And why do newspapers in Trinidad carry reviews of Hindi films?

Ganesh's metamorphosis is not totally belieavable. He appears to be a useless, good for nothing guy at one time, and the know-it-all mystic with a lot of self confidence at other times. There is nothing about Ganesh which the reader would remember. Behary, Ganesh's friend, is an interesting character. I enjoyed the conversations between Behary (Suruj Poopa, as in Suruj ke pappa) and his wife, Suruj Mooma (you know what that means). Ganesh's wife and his father-in-law add a bit of garnishing.

I appreciate the subtle, polished humour of P G Wodehouse and also in the face, wacky humour of Tom Robbins. Naipaul's humour lies somewhere in between, and, I think, is targetted at the Indian community settled overseas. I can imagine the migrated Indians reading and laughing at the Indian culture and practices. I might be wrong about who his target audience is, but I am sure I am not one of them. This was my first Naipaul book, and in all probability, this will be the last one too.

Even cowgirls get the blues: Tom Robbins

After I was floored by Jitterbug Perfume, I picked up another Tom Robbins' book Even cowgirls get the blues with a lot of expectation and the book lived up to it.

As with any Robbins' book, it's pointless to discuss the plot. How would it sound if I said, 'this book is about a girl with abnormally huge thumbs, whose profession is hitchhiking and about a spiritual guru named Chink and a ranch run by a band of cowgirls'. Not interesting, right? Robbins' book is not about plots. It's about humor, the interesting use of words, the absurd-yet-funny way of bringing in two different disconnected topics and connecting them together. Oh, you should read his book to believe it.

This is probably Robbins' most acclaimed book. It's even made into a movie, which I came to know only after reading the back cover. Robbins creates extremely interesting characters for his books. Considering that this book was first published in 1976, it touches upon rather controversial subjects. The author generously puts in enough graphical scenes - I don't see the need, though. The book is interesting enough without those pages.

Though I liked this book, I still prefer Jitterbug Perfume to this, probably because it was my first Robbins book.

Wikipedia entry for Tom Robbins says

His novels are complex, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details.

I agree with the complex, wild and obscure details part, but I fail to see the satirical bent. May be I don't have enough grey cells to understand it. All I know is Tom Robbins is a lot of fun.

If you read Scott Adams' blog and enjoy it, then it's highly likely that you will enjoy Tom Robbins' books.

That which we call a rose by any other...

Humans think they are the most powerful. To believe that we have the power to decide whether a ball of mass is a planet or not: what a cheek! Who are we to decide whether Pluto is a planet or not? It will remain the size and color regardless of what its title is. I can't fathom how we can declare that 'Pluto will no longer be considered as a planet'? That is pretentious, to say the least.

I can see God reading the Times of India, chuckling to himself and saying, "You forget a teeny-weeny point, my children. If I want, I can wipe out your planet. Are you sure your planet will exist tomorrow?"

And do I hear a far cry of "We are a planet"? And why do I feel they are strange, green colored creatures?